Kaizen and the Art of Instruction

I differ in philosophy with the education recordkeeping process as it currently stands. I am not an administrative-oriented person; thus, my focus is on direct communication with the student/customer and not in the documentation procedures that the education system (public, nonprofit and for-profit) uses both as a means to achieve accreditation and a means to ensure people have written records that say they did what they could to help a student.

Having been an employee, a manager and a company owner, I have maintained this same philosophy my whole career, and worked to minimize or eliminate paperwork and meetings for others with whom I've worked or who have worked for me. It is key to my understanding of kaizen - continuous process improvement - in both work and life.


I understand that the job duties of an instructor, fulltime and adjunct, include communicating with students/customers and documenting the results of the communications. I also understand that I have a value for myself in terms of $/hour that do not include excessive administrative duties. I have given more than my share of "volunteer" hours to ensure my students enjoy and learn during our contact time together in the classroom, which also impacts my value to my family in both income and quality time.

If I had neglected my duties to the student/customer, I would feel it necessary to cover my tracks in recording administrative information. Instead, I let the opinions and learning of my students/customers speak for my record, which does not need administrative details entered by me in a database.

As several colleagues of mine have commented, my recent participation as an instructor makes me realize where my management skills are best used, usually at the corporate level in determining company policy, not at the satellite office level. I have raised issues like this to others further up the chain as well as managed the process changes myself to clear up the inefficiencies in the current system so that we can get the problem resolved on a systematic basis and not an individual one.

I have enjoyed teaching the students/customers, giving them not only the classroom instruction required for the subject at hand but also insight into the workings of business, to ensure they have the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. Part of this is teaching them to look for process bottlenecks, regardless of the status quo others may see you upsetting by requesting a process change. For me, database entry is a process bottleneck.

If my philosophy is out-of-line with firmly established corporate goals that will not change, then that is the issue I have to consider in continuing to teach because I stand firm in my belief that database documentation impedes my ability to spend time with and teach the students/customers. I have given the students/customers much of my time and will always appreciate the two-way communication process between us, which I carry with me on a daily basis while establishing a startup company. I will not let an inefficient database structure get in the way of that wonderful learning!

Enough of my philosophy. Back to work and then later on grading papers and preparing for tonight's final exam.

Have a great afternoon!